A primary means for reducing production costs of a product is to reduce the number of components it includes. Often times, however, this cannot be done without compromising functionality. Reports indicate that eliminating functionality may eventually result in loss of market share due to reduced consumer satisfaction.
As such, a design paradigm that seeks to reduce cost must do so without compromising functionality. This is particularly true for backlight systems. A backlight system is a lighting system configured to illuminate items, such as keys or switches that a user routinely interacts with on a machine or in a vehicle. In typical backlight systems, particularly for vehicles, complex interactions between switches and other subsystems have made component reduction thus far impossible without sacrificing functionality.
Therefore, in vehicles that include simplified backlight system designs, for example, while productions costs for the manufacturer are lowered, consumers have reduced functionality. As such, there is a need to provide backlight systems having fewer parts, with no loss of functionality, and in some cases, even more functionality than what is currently available.